Updated on February 26, 2025

How can students balance test prep and academics?

Students often see test preparation and academics as competing priorities. They treat them in opposition to each other - they can either do my homework or do a practice test. If they work on a practice test that takes them away from working on homework and studying for classroom tests. They feel caught between keeping up there GPA and striving for test improvements.

This is how my student Elizabeth felt. When we started working together on SAT prep, she was taking 3 AP classes including AP Chemistry and APUSH (AP US History). Even though she knew that she needed to put in the work to improve her score, she was nervous about dedicating the extra time since that would “take away” from her challenging class load.

Once she got started she realized two things.

Learning to take a test doesn’t just apply to the SAT or ACT.

Several times throughout our work she would reflect on the test strategies we were learning and applying to her SAT work. “Kevin, you know that tactic that we worked on last time? I applied it to my recent math test. It TOTALLY worked. I knew exactly what I was doing and got the question right.”

Content carries over.

The same idea is true for content. Learning content - good solid content - doesn’t just apply to the classroom. It also applies to standardized tests and vice versa.

For example, Elizabeth said that learning punctuation rules for the SAT made her a better writer. “I have finally been able to use a semicolon correctly in my writing thanks to what we learned last week in our SAT class. I used it a couple times in my in-class essay the other day and it was super helpful.”

What we learn in one place, whether it’s grammar rules or methods of quadratics, will inform and sharpen not only your knowledge for the SAT, it should do the same for your work on academics.

Synergy not balance.

In short, the key to balancing test prep and academics is to let them each inform the other. They are only at odds if you treat them that way. In fact, the best way is to use be self reflective about both your academics and your test preparation so that each one informs the other.

Is your student struggling with how to balance test prep and academics. Using my Execution Self Reflection (ESR) framework, I help students get insights to both! Get started by taking my Test Prep Readiness quiz here.